Jakub Janda did another of his interviews. This time with Johannes Jung of the German Baseball-Bundesliga club Gauting Indians.
Johannes Jung
- Gauting Indians
- 21 years old
- German Baseball Bundesliga since 2005
Jakub Janda: Please describe your career since you started playing baseball to the present.
Johannes Jung: I started playing Baseball at the age of 8 when a friend of mine took me to one of the practices. At this time Baseball was only an addition to my main sport Tennis. Time comes and Baseball became more and more important to me. When I was 11 I played my first real tournament, the German Championship of the 10 to 12 years old. In the same year I made it into the Bavarian Allstar Team of the 12 to 15 years old. At this point I really want to thank the Coaches of the Allstar Team because they taught me a lot about Baseball and improved my skills. They are really doing a great job.
In 2002 the Gauting Indians had a pretty good youth team (12-15 years), so again we played at the German Championship and we made the second place.
Every year I played successfully with the Bavarian Allstar Team at the German State Championship. At one of these tournaments a Coach from the German Baseball Academy asked me whether I liked to play with a German Allstar Team at the Colt Baseball Word Series (Pony League Organization) in Lafayette, Indiana. For sure I was happy to be on the team and it was a great experience to play the first time at a big junior tournament in the USA.
In the same year I made my first experience in Germanys’ highest baseball league and I also made it into the Junior National Team as a pitcher. Due to arm problems that I had at this time my role changed into a utility player in this team.
In the following year I was already a starting player for the first team of the Gauting Indians. The same year I went with the German Baseball Academy to a junior tournament in the USA, the Big League World Series (Little League Organization) in Easley, South Carolina.
2007 I finally won the German State Championship with the Bavarian Allstar Team and I went to the European Championship with the German National Team. Unfortunately we didn’t do that well at this tournament. The last time I traveled so far to a tournament in the USA was 2008, to the Big League World Series.
Until now I played for the Gauting Indians. I think these are most of the interesting excerpts of my “career” that I can tell.
JaJa: How were you preparing for this season during winter? Did you change anything from previous offseasons?
JoJu: This winter I had to change my preparation because I had to do the nine month army service, which is compulsory in Germany. Because I was the whole time at the army base, I couldn’t do a lot of baseball specific preparation, I only was able to do conditional and weight lifting work. To be honest, it was hard to prepare for the season and still I think I wasn’t that well prepared.
JaJa: What do you consider your career highlights?
JoJu: I would say my highlights were the 3 tournaments in the USA, the first place at the German State Championship and for sure participating at the Junior European Championship.
JaJa: What has baseball taken from you and what has the game given to you?
JoJu: Baseball definitely has taken a lot of my time and I often couldn’t have done some other things that I would have liked to do. But it was worth it, because for sure it also has given a lot to me: you get to know a lot of different people, I made a lot of experiences, came around a little bit and most important I had a lot of fun.
JaJa: How do you like your own performance this season?
JoJu: I think it was good; for sure it also could have been better. I was pretty sad that I had an injury in the summer, so that I couldn’t play for 7 weeks. Also it’s always tough to get in shape again after that.
JaJa: What do you think about your club in this season? Have you fulfilled expectations?
JoJu: No we haven’t fulfilled the expectations. Our goal was to reach the playoffs and we missed that. I blame it a little bit on the organization of the club because they didn’t manage to get a full and prepared team with a coach and all the foreign players on the field at the start of the season. Our performance was better than the last years but it could have been better.
JaJa: How many times in your career have you thought about quitting baseball?
JoJu: Now I only can think of one time, when I was 16 or so and had bad discussions with some teammates I thought about quitting or leaving the club.
JaJa: If you could advise young players reading this interview, what would you address them?
JoJu: Hmm – haha actually then I would address to myself because I’m still a young player… now seriously… I’ m also coaching a youth team so…. Guys work hard, have fun and focus on your goal ahead.
JaJa: Your future plans on the field?
JoJu: I will start studying now, so I definitely want to do one or two semester abroad in the USA, so that I can play at a collage. Furthermore I want to play for a season in another country to get some more experience. My goal right now is to make it into the Senior National Team and I hope I attain my goal.
Mister-Baseball thanks Jakub Janda and Johannes Jung for the interview.
Photos: Andre Salcher, Gauting Indians